I've already posted my Demos and EPs lists last week, so we've finally reached Best Hardcore Albums of 2024 time on No Echo. In terms of style buckets, I'm all over the place in my listening habits when it comes to hardcore. Hopefully that reflects in my picks this year.
If you haven't done so already, check out No Echo's 2024 Hardcore Releases playlist where I include one track per release as things get released throughout the year. It's a handy tool to check out things you might have missed this past year.
It's No Echo's 10th anniversary this year, so this one feels special for me. Thanks for reading.
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Bad Beat, LP 2024
Bad Beat vocalist Jimmy Lawson kept it 100 with me when we spoke about the Detroit band on No Echo late last year: "We just wanted to sound like Shark Attack, Mental, Bracewar, etc."
Yes, if you're a fan of the groups mentioned above, LP 2024 will put a big dumb smile on your face. Jimmy's snarling vocal style is the cherry on top.
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Bent Blue, So Much Seething
Something I complain about when it comes to the current state of hardcore is the lack of newer melodic hardcore bands. One of the groups scratching that itch for the past few years is San Diego's Bent Blue, and here's to hoping that their impressive debut LP, So Much Seething, inspires others in its wake.
Their 2022 Where Do Ripples Go? EP set the stage for the album's winsome balance of melancholic guitar lines, gritty vocals, and driving energy. Dashes of '90s emocore, Revolution Summer, and Four-era Seaweed rounds out the stylistic mood on So Much Seething, which is up my alley more than you'll ever know.
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Berthold City, Where Did We Go Wrong?
"Some of the newer Berthold City tracks are the best songs that I've ever written," vocalist Andrew Kline said to me earlier this year, which is a big statement from him since he's also in Strife. He wasn't just hitting me with hyperbolic nonsense as Berthold City's sophomore album, Where Did We Go Wrong?, finds the Los Angeles straight edge unit delivering one anthemic hardcore heater after the other.
Props also going out to Terror drummer Nick Jett who in his role as producer ensures songs like "To New Lows," "Time Won't Change," and "The Cost" sound as explosive, dynamic, and clear as they deserve to be heard.
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Burning Lord, Arcane Demolition
While their two demos weren't slouch releases by any means, Arcane Demolition signaled to the hardcore community that Burning Lord was a band to pay attention to. "We are musically influenced by New Breed-era/early '90s NYHC," singer Matt Guilbert wrote me for a 2021 No Echo early profile on the Boston band, and it's no surprise I can hear some Show of Force and Dmize (!) vibes on the LP.
Influences aside, Arcane Demolition is a crossover record where things lean heavier on the hardcore than the thrash metal side of the sonic scale. And I would be remiss if I didn't show some love to Owen's supreme bass tone that Harley Flanagan would approve of.
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Contention, Artillery From Heaven
When it comes to metal-influenced hardcore today, few bands are on the level of Contention. The vast majority of groups in this stylistic realm put most of the focus on cramming as much of the nastiest Slayer and At the Gates-like riffs they can into a track with seemingly small concern on song arrangement and nuance. Contention are too good for that.
Sure, there's a parade of tasty pointy neck guitar riffs all over the Tampa, Florida band's debut album, Artillery From Heaven, but the songs sink their fangs into you. The sinister spirit always looms large on the album, but it's all doled out at a measured pace for maximum impact.
Artillery From Heaven, is a masterclass in metallic hardcore, putting them in same rarified air as bands like All Out War, Shai Hulud, Turmoil, and Arkangel.
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Gaoled, Bestial Hardcore
Easily the gnarliest record on this list, the subject matter on Bestial Hardcore deals with “intrusive thoughts, fixations and paranoid delusions arising from psychotic episodes, dreams and manic states," and you won't doubt that after hearing it.
The grimiest aspects of power violence and hardcore reign supreme on Bestial Hardcore, with vocalist Micky's pained howls matching the negative intensity throughout. A couple of the guys in Gaoled previously played in Suffer, another Aussie band you should seek out if you love this as much as I do.
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Gray State, Under the Wheels of Progress
Graduates of my 12 Newer Hardcore Bands to Check Out in 2024 list, Gray State didn't let me down this past year. The Finnish quintet's Under the Wheels of Progress deals out Arkangel-kissed guitars and infectious mid-tempo groove parts with expert ease. There are even some gorgeously composed guitar solos on the record.
Proudly waving the "vegan metal" flag, Gray State drummer Saku Koski-Vähälä told me the following about their sophomore full-length: "The new album concentrates on critical thoughts about humanity’s progress and will to reign over nature, dangers of instrumental reasoning and the violent backlash of the hybris we’ve come to witness for example in ecocrisis and total war."
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Home Invasion, Enemy
You can usually tell a lot about a band when they reveal their influences to you. When I first covered Home Invasion on No Echo last year, drummer Nick dropped Think I Care, Gauze, and Bastard as points of inspiration, and Enemy makes that ring true.
Only two of of the 12 tracks on the Chicago band's debut LP reach the 2-minute mark, which means they don't leave room for anything but the fun stuff. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Pete Grossman at Bricktop Studios, Enemy sounds massive, allowing each instrument to have definition but never over-powering each other.
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Lifeless Dark, Forces of Nature's Transformation
Forces of Nature's Transformation dropped as I was compiling this list, and I'm grateful that it did. While I was a fan of their 2018 demo, I wasn't prepared for how killer this album would prove to be.
The Boston outfit's Behind the Realms of Madness-era Sacriliege meets Extinction of Mankind meets Death Evocation style sounds like the kind of thing the Napalm Death dudes would have been playing in their van, circa 1989. Oh, and Elaine's vocals ripping above the nuclear thrash beneath is a thing of beauty.
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Love Letter, Everyone Wants Something Beautiful
"Every musician in Love Letter has a sound and what makes a band special is when that intricate combination of colors, textures, and dynamics come together to make something special and unique that couldn’t have existed in any other formation." That quote comes from guitarist Jay Maas, guitarist of Love Letter, a new band featuring members of Verse and Defeater.
Everyone Wants Something Beautiful is a layered piece of work, building tension through atmospheric rhythmic beds while Quinn Murphy shouts out in a more tradition hardcore style. His lyrics on the album couldn't be more timely.
The singer has been through several psychiatric hospitalizations, and his struggles navigating the the U.S. heathcare system are documented on the LP. "If you’re low-income, like I was/still am, it’s a nightmare to figure out how to get the help you need."
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Missing Link, Watch Me Bleed
In the thuggish hardcore lane, Watch Me Bleed was the cream of the crop this year. New York's Missing Link includes members of Blood Runs Cold, Pain of Truth, and Internal Bleeding in their lineup and outside of their obvious command of dance floor-baiting mosh parts, the album proves that they know how to make it all sound catchy.
With it's refrain of "but who’s that peekin’ in my window?," "New York Minute" is one of the best hardcore songs of 2024. I wonder how many people get the Goodie Mob reference?
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No Future, Mirror
Like Gaoled, No Future are based out of Perth, but these Australians bring forth a d-beat approach to their attack. Bass tone fetishists need to check this shit out! The bass lines erupt through the mix just as loud as the guitars, melding together into a ferocious mass of controlled chaos.
Mirror is 20 minutes of hardcore punk bliss.
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Rejoice, All of Heaven's Luck
Columbus, Ohio's Rejoice was included on my aforementioned 12 Newer Hardcore Bands to Check Out list at the top of the year, so I'm pleased as piss to also have them on this AOTY piece.
All of Heaven's Luck is a nasty thing, exhibiting Rejoice's blend of grimy hardcore and propulsive black metal in all its unrelenting glory.
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Sorcerer, Devotion
How is Sorcerer not a bigger band? If you're into metallic hardcore, these Parisians need to be in your regular listening rotation. From its evocative cover image to producer Amaury Sauvé's tremendous mix, and most importantly, the band's engaging songwriting, Devotion casts its spell over you deeper with each listen.
Much like I said for Love Letter's entry above, Sorcerer don't rush their arrangements, weaving dramatic tension along the way. On Devotion, "Fortress" is a great example of that idea, crawling forward like an army preparing for a raid at dusk.
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The Hope Conspiracy, Tools of Oppression/Rule by Deception
Cold Blue was one of the most beloved hardcore records of the '00s, but what impresses even more is that The Hope Conspiracy's first album in close to two decades hits just as hard.
"The issues that divide us get amplified through the media to keep us all on edge and loathing one another while the corporate masters literally strip mine the middle class for all its worth," said vocalist Kevin Baker when discussing Tools of Oppression/Rule by Deception and its lyrics. Yet some more timely hardcore right here.
Musically speaking, The Hope Conspiracy lays down a foundation of chaotic arrangements filled with frenetic rhythms and rolling guitar riffs for Kevin to scream out the injustices. It's metal-influenced at times, but its roots go deeper into classic hardcore punk.
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Tagged: bad beat, bent blue, berthold city, burning lord, contention, gaoled, gray state, home invasion, lifeless dark, love letter, missing link, no future, rejoice, the hope conspiracy
